Two Lithuanian companies and one German company will build a section of the European-gauge railway Rail Baltica from Kaunas’ railway station to the Kaunas Intermodal Terminal under a contract worth 54.762 million euros.
The state railway company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) on Friday signed the contract with a consortium of Lithuania’s Hidrostatyba and Autokausta and Germany’s Leonhard Weiss RTE.
“Once this strategic link is built, the Baltic countries’ largest transshipment hub for freight transported by railways of different standards will start operating in Palemonas,” Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai CEO Mantas Bartuska said in a press release. “This will allow the company to increase the volume of intermodal transportation, which is one of the most efficient modes of freight transportation,” he added.
Palemonas is an industrial area in Lithuania’s second-biggest city of Kaunas.
The contractors will build nine kilometers of European-gauge 1,435-milimeter tracks and upgrade a section of existing 1,520-mm tracks. The project also involves building two road tunnels, a viaduct and noise barriers, etc.
Five EU member states — Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and, indirectly, Finland — are taking part in the implementation of the Rail Baltica project, which will integrate the Baltic countries into the European rail network.
Total investments in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are estimated at around 5.788 billion euros.
